ABSTRACT
Objective To conduct the statistical analysis on the free carnitine and acylcarnitines levels in 0?6 years old children by detecting the contents of free carnitine and acylcarnitines in dry blood spot to provide the biological reference range for the diagnosis of fatty acid metabolic disorder and organic acidemia.Methods The levels of acylcarnitines of peripheral blood dry blood spot in 263 normal children were detected by using the isotopic dilution non-derived tandem mass spectrometry.All children were divided into male and female groups according to different genders and divided into the groups according to the age,1-28 d(gestational weeks ≥37 weeks),1-12 months old,13 months-3 years old and 4-6 years old.Results The detection results after normality test found that the levels of free carnitine and acylcarnitines in children showed a normality distribution.The free carnitine and various acylcarnitines levels had no statistical difference between male children and female children (t=0.5,P=0.619).The C4,C5,C6,C10,C12 and C18 had equal variance among various age groups(P>0.05) and could conducted the one way variance analysis;C0,C2,C3,C5,OH,C6,C8,C14,C16 and C18 had the variance heterogeneity among different age groups(P<0.05) and could conduct the rank-sum test(P<0.05).The C0,C2,C3,C5,OH,C6,C8,C10,C12,C14,C16 and C18 had statistical differences among different age groups,the reference value ranges were calculated according to different ages.The difference in C4 and C5 had no statistical significance and the reference value range could be calculated by the merged group.Conclusion It is a very important for the diagnosis and treatment of fatty acid metabolic disorder and organic acidemia to establish the reference value ranges of dry blood spot free carnitine and acylcarnitines in children according to different ages.